Describe common storage technologies such as optical, magnetic and solid state

Select suitable storage devices and storage media for a given application and justify their choice using characteristics such as capacity, speed, portability, durability and reliability

Suggested time: 100 mins

Starter:

Students asked to research storage devices and list as many different types as they can. After 5 minutes students, chosen at random, to list one device they found.

Part 1: Introduction For my third lesson, I decided to investigate Secondary Storage devices. I began by explaining the main 3 types of storage technologies: Optical, Magnetic and Solid State. I started with Magnetic storage devices and showed students an extract from RI Christmas Lecture 2008, Lecture 3: The Ghost in the machine, part 2 (explanation of how a hard disk works) – Fast forward to 12 min 30 sec. [Alternative: How a hard drive works]. I followed this by explaining optical devices and showed them a video showing how a CD works. I finished by explaining Solid State drives.

After a brief explanation of each of the 3 methods, I showed students a comparison table (See below) and compared some of the features (Capacity, speed, portability, durability and reliability). I finished by showing students a clip from the Gadget Show in which the presentors test the durability of different storage devices.

Part 2: Research (Revision wiki) After a brief introduction to storage devices, I instructed students to conduct some research into different storage devices and collect their finding in a table (provided). Upon completion, students were asked to upload their finished tables to their teams wiki. (See below)

Example student wiki - Storage comparison table.

Part 3: Top Trumps After about 15 minutes, I emailed students a Top Trumps template I created in Microsoft Word (See below). Alternatively, students can use an online Top Trumps generator like Trading Card Creator. I then challenged each team to create 8 Top Trumps cards with the following criteria: Medium, capacity, speed, portability, price per Gb and reliability / durability. I also asked students to include an image of their chosen storage device (See example below).

Finally, to make sure students didn’t cheat on price per Gb, I banned them from using auction sites and third party re-sellers.

Plenary: Play Top Trumps

After each team had printed and cut out their Top Trump cards, I explained the rules (See below) and gave a quick demonstration with the help of two volunteers. After a quick practice, we played the game.

Hint: The game works best with 3 teams however, if you have more than 3 teams, you could play more than one round with the winner of each round playing against each other in the final.

An interesting rider to this material would be to mention the cost/GB about 45 years ago, which from memory would be many 10s of thousands of £££s. In 1970 when IBM announced the 'massive' 3330 disk (100 Mbytes) you would need 10 of these to make a Gbyte, costing a little more than 93 pence!